Out of luck
Austin's rising rents force acclaimed Italian sandwich shop to shutter
Austin’s rising costs has claimed another victim. Lucky’s Puccias and Pizzeria, a name synonymous with Austin’s food truck boom, shuttered at the end of service on January 27.
“We tried to get the landlord to lower rent so that we could continue operating,” a rep confirmed to CultureMap, noting that both a Subway location and Mas Vino in the 1611 W. Fifth St. building also failed to make a go of it. The representative declined to be named.
“We wanted to stay there, but the landlord would not budge on the value of their properties, which are now going mostly vacant, which weakens the value of the neighborhood,” the rep continued. “Despite this, we loved feeding Austin and will deeply miss our loyal customers.”
Luciano “Lucky” Sibilla first opened his namesake trailer in 2010 outside West Fifth Street’s Tiniest Bar in Texas. Serving Italian sandwiches fired in a wood oven built inside the truck, the eatery quickly became one of Austin’s most lauded food trucks, earning mentions in Texas Monthly and on the Food Network.
In 2013, the truck has a brush with fame on the TLC series Secret Princes, a show probably best forgotten save for Sibilla’s always entertaining appearances as the hard-nosed employer of the undercover royalty featured.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the restaurant shifted its operations to 1611 W. Fifth St. in January 2015. The operation allowed Sibilla to expand his operation to pizzas, salads, and salumi as well as offer beer and wine.
The closure marks the end of Lucky’s presence in Austin. The trailer, which opened in October 2018 at the 1606 East food truck park near the Ramen Tatsu-ya on East Sixth Street, closed this past December.
